God Tree (Kai)
A God Tree (神樹, Shinju, English TV: Divine Tree) is a unique type of gigantic tree that produces capable of bestowing great power to individuals. Background God Trees are born from seeds that lands on planets, usually from a meteorite. While many believed that the God Trees nourished the land and helped it thrive, while in truth, the God Trees slowly kills the land and its people, by draining from them. Due to its massive size and the conditions under which it is grown, the God Trees are often revered by some cultures; humans used to worship the God Tree of Earth as a sacred pillar that extended into the heavens and remained ambivalent to all conflict. Every thousand years, a God Tree produces a , by consuming the planets natural energy and combining it with another source of nutrients. Members of the travel through dimensions in search of God Trees so that they can consume these fruits and gain their powerful for themselves. Some Ōtsutsuki, such as and , harvest the God Tree's fruit until it and its respective planet die, at which point they go looking for a new one. However, should a chakra fruit reach maturity it will give rise to a powerful entity. Chiha discovered that a god tree is capable of giving rise to four fully formed chakra fruits before it withers and dies, Known God Trees Earth A God Tree seed landed on from a meteorite several millennia ago, which grew by absorbing the blood soaked into the ground from countless battles. , after consuming the fruit of Earth's God Tree, chose to settle on the planet and use the power she gained in order to single-handedly rule over the human populations. As a measure to keep the peace, Kaguya enslaved part of the human population with the and those affected to the God Tree, assimilating them with its life force and gradually turning them into . When Kaguya's sons, and , were born with chakra of their own, she merged with the Earth's God Tree in order to take the chakra back, thus becoming a monster called the . Momoshiki's Planet A God Tree once grew on the planet, attracting the attention of Kinshiki and Momoshiki Ōtsutsuki. Over a period of time, they fed off the God Tree's chakra; eventually killing the tree and the planet in the process. After a battle on the planet, the tree was cut in half and was completely destroyed. Unknown Planet Similar Cases Sakuya's Divine Tree thumb|One God Tree. Was an experiment done by .... to see what would happen should a god tree seed be fed a different energy. Her successful experiment giving rise to four unique god trees. Trivia * The God Tree is similar to both the world tree and the tree of life, motifs that are present in several real-life religions and mythologies throughout the world. In addition, it shares similarities to Jubokko, a yōkai tree that appears on former battlefields and feeds on the blood of humans. ** The God Tree bearing the fruit that was deemed forbidden to consume is very similar to the story of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Abrahamic religions, in which Adam and Eve, the first humans, ate the forbidden fruit despite being told otherwise. Ultimately, while becoming wiser, it lead to their downfall by incurring the wrath of God. For disobeying Him, He forever cursed the two and their descendants. Adam's eldest son, Cain, would later murder his younger brother, Abel, in anger and jealousy following God's rejection of his offering while accepting Abel's, similar to the struggle between the of the . ** A similar motif appears in Journey to the West (one of the inspirations for the Naruto franchise), when the pilgrims cross paths with the Immortal Zhenyuan and his special tree, the Ginsengfruit tree, which produces only 30 pieces of fruit every 9,000 years; the fruit is shaped like an infant less than three days old. A person who smells the fruit can extend his lifespan by 360 years, while a person who eats the fruit can live for another 47,000 years. This served as one of the 81 (9x9) trials that the pilgrims had to endure in their quest to fetch Buddha's Great Vehicle Scriptures (Mahayana/Mahayana sutras). ** The wooden dragon-like entities at the base of the God Tree may be a reference to Nidhogg, a dragon or serpent who eternally chews the roots of Yggdrasil in Norse mythology. Likewise with the appearance of the God Tree, it is said that should Nidhogg finally be free of its entrapment underneath Yggdrasil, its appearance into the world beyond its roots are said to herald the coming of Ragnarök, the end of the world and ultimate battle of the gods. * During the , transforms the Ten-Tails into a giant tree as part of his . The and the call this both the Ten-Tails' final form and the God Tree itself. * Just before absorbed the Ten-Tails into himself, a voice spoke to him, willing him to . Interestingly, the voice uses katakana, a unique style of speaking only used by Black Zetsu, while referring to itself using , an archaic personal pronoun. In , the voice is Kaguya's. * In the anime, the God Tree is shown to have a will of its own and became the Ten-Tails to fight alongside Kaguya. Also See * Source Veins Category:Kaiser Terms